RARE BOOKS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5519, 20 March 1896, Page 2

RARE BOOKS.

♦ One of the most remarkable collections of books extant has recently been sold by auction in London. The owner of the collection was a Mr Stuart, and he is certainly to be congratulated, both on the very valuable property which he has succeeded in collecting and on the satisfactory sum which the sale of it brought him. The oldest relic in the collection ■was a manuscript Bible of the thirteenth century. This brought £490, and as another copy of a slightly later date went for ,£260 it seems evident that the purchase of manuscripts is a privilege of millionaires only. Some of the books brought prices for which neither the reputation of the author' nor the antiquity of the volume furnish much justification. Lord Bute's "Botanical Tables" (1785) went for .£39 10s. Caxton's " Book of Divers, Fruitful Ghostly Matters " was bought for .£1.17. Even -the genius and fame of Moliere do not alter the fact that ,£lO5 is a high price for an edition of his works done, on vellum, bearing the date 1791-4. On the other hand, there were some remarkably cheap lots knocked down to the buyers who thronged Mr Stuart's saleroom. Mr Swinburne's "Poems and Ballads" (1866), even in Moxon's rare edition, elicited no bid beyond the very modest one of twenty-four shillings. It is true that his "Atalanta" went for £i iOs, but that was in the original and unique white cover in which it first came out. Keats's "Lamia" (with the author's "sincere respects") was probably cheap at J>9. There can be no doubt, however, about the next, item on the list. Shelley's " Prometheus Unbound" (1820), a presentation copy to Leigh Hunt, with autograph inscription, was sold for £2 15s ! One wonders where the members of the Shelley Society were when this relic of their hero was being slaughtered. First editions of Tennyson do not.appearto keep up high prices, and one is not surprised to' hear that Matthew Arnold, in the same form, is comparatively cheap. Taking the sale as a whole, first editions of modern poets appear to afford the least expensive opening for the desires of the enthusiastic book hunter.